Giants Open Training Camp

It is now the end of July which only means one thing for football fans. Training camp begins! I've been waiting a while to write this blog about my Giants. The Giants report to camp this Thursday July 25th at UAlbany and will remain there till August 14th.  Even though the season is still a little more than a month away (43 days to be approximate), there are many questions that the Giants will have to answer over the next few weeks before their first game at the Metlife Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys.

There are several positions that people are questionable about going into camp. I'm going to start with the tight ends.  During the Super Bowl both tight ends Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum sustained knee injuries.  The Giants had to release Ballard, but they planned on picking him back up after he cleared waivers.  Things didn't go as planned and Ballard was picked up by the New England Patriots and placed on the injured reserved list.  Beckum is currently still rehabing his knee injury and it is questionable when he will be back this season.  As a result to the loss of Ballard and Beckum's knee injury, the Giants went out and signed former tight end of the Dallas Cowboys, Martellus Bennett.  Bennett, a former 2nd round pick in 2008, always played behind Cowboys star tight end Jason Witten, but he was used alot in their offense and showed good potential. At first I thought it would be a good replacement until Ballard came back healthy, but then he got signed by the Patriots. Then it was reported that Bennett was overweight and the Giants were not happy witht that.  During camp Bennett is going to battle with tight end/fullback Bear Pascoe for the starting job.  Pascoe has had his fair share of big catches throughout last years Super Bowl run including a touchdown against the 49er's in the NFC championship game. At the end of camp my prediction is Bennett will win the starting job, but Pascoe will get his fair share of snaps too.

The next position that has concern is at middle linebacker. The outside and inside linebackers will be Mathias Kiwanuka and Michael Boley.  The middle linebacker position is up for grabs.  Last season, the middle linebacker consisted of Greg Jones, Mark Herzlich, and Chase Blackburn.  This training camp theres going to be a battle for the starting job position.  There isn't really even a favorite considering how much it changed last season from game to game.  I guess you can say Chase Blackburn is because he started in the Super Bowl at middle linebacker, but then again he wasn't even on the team for the beginning of last season.  Also, during the offseason the Giants acquired former first round pick, Keith Rivers from the Cincinnati Bengals.  Rivers usually played the outside linebacker spot, but they might try him out at the middle linebacker spot.  At the end of camp I think Mark Herzlich will be the starter. He is now entering his second season and is also now 100 percent healthy. I think he will have a good camp and he can help big blue alot this season on defense.

The last position battle I wanna talk about is at wide reciever. Hakeem Nicks isn't sure when he will be ready to go at camp, but he is expected to be ready for week 1 against the Cowboys.  Victor Cruz is back and is ready for another big season.  The question remains about who will emerge as the 3rd reciever on the depth chart.  Mario Manningham has left for San Francisco and that 3rd reciever position is open for grabs.  Some canadates to fill this position are Domenik Hixon, Rueben Randle, Ramses Barden, and Jerrel Jernigan.  Domenik Hixon is coming off a knee injury last season and he is fully recovered and ready to go.  Hixon has mainly been a kick returner, but he has shown that he has some good hands when he got playing time back in 2008 and 2009.  A knee injuries shut him down for all of the 2010 season and for 14 games in 2011, but now with a 3rd reciever spot open, Hixon is ready for a big training camp and to show that he still has it in him to be a playmaker for the Giants. Ramses Barden and Jerrel Jernigan both have an outside chance of getting this job. I really like Ramses Barden since they drafted him back in 2009.  Hes a big reciever (6 feet 6 inches) and he reminds me alot of Plaxico Burress.  His only shot came in 2010 when the Giants had alot of injuries at wide reciever and he also too got hurt suffering a season ending knee injury.  Last season he was the 4th reciever and did not get many snaps on the field.  Even if Barden doesn't get the 3rd reciever spot, he still could get some time on the field early on in the season because of Nicks missing some of training camp.  The favorite and my pick to win the 3rd reciever spot is 2nd round draft pick out of LSU Rueben Randle. He is good at going up and making some great catches. He can be another great weapon for Eli and he's the early favorite to win the job.

The Giants are already getting alot of specualtion and are getting predicted to finish 3rd in the NFC East by alot of analyst.  To prove them wrong they got to start off by having a successful training camp to get ready for the 2012 season.